(The Christian Science Monitor) Sikh accountant Kawal Tagore won a settlement Thursday from the U.S. government that will open the doors of federal buildings to many of her fellow Sikhs around the country—and help counter the discrimination they often face.
Tagore worked at the Internal Revenue Service in 2005 when she was baptized in the Sikh faith. She wore a kirpan, a small ceremonial knife usually kept in a sheath, to work. Her supervisor asked her to leave, and she was later fired.
There is no prescribed length for the kirpan, one of five articles of faith maintained by Sikhs; hers was three inches long and duller than a butter knife. The policy of the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service effectively barred her from all federal buildings. Her lawyers argued that the policy excluding her was discriminatory because the same building permitted sharper pocketknives, as well as other sharp objects used in offices, such as scissors.
